I’ve been reading a lot this week, so brace yourself for an extra-long What I’ve Been Reading. You’ve been warned.

Ben Kuchera of the Penny Arcade Report warns that Majesco has been using what are likely fake Twitter accounts to promote NBA Baller Beats, boosting the game’s Twitter following to levels higher than that of the Call of Duty franchise. These kinds of shady business practices don’t inspire much confidence in the game or its publisher. Kudos to Kuchera for some thorough investigative reporting.

Damien McFerran of Eurogamer asks if retro gaming is mere nostalgia or something deeper. I say it’s both. There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in revisiting the pastimes of one’s youth, but some older games are genuinely fun, even today. (The later Commander Keen games hold up surprisingly well.)

Destructoid user ccesarano thinks that we buy and play too many games nowadays, and we don’t take the time to savour them anymore. He’s got a point. When I was younger, I played basically two games: Worms 2 and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I played them religiously. Now, thanks to the magic of Steam sales, I’ve got a gigantic backlog and an even longer list of half-finished games. (I’ll complete Beyond Good & Evil one day, I promise!) I don’t take the time to discover every nook and cranny of a game; I just play through it and then move on to the next one. I could stand to take more time with my games instead of worrying that I’ll miss out on some well-known titles that I don’t really want to play.

Taylor Townsend, the #1 ranked junior female tennis player, was nearly denied a spot in the US Open because of concerns over her weight. Apparently, the USTA thought she was fat and out of shape at 170 pounds. These morons do realize that muscle is denser than fat, right?

A new species of monkey, dubbed “lesula” has been discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While I think it’s awesome that we keep finding new species of mammals, I worry that this will spark more “Bigfoot is real!” hysteria.

A while ago, I mentioned that Wikipedia has a male bias problem; not enough of its editors are women. Now, The Mary Sue has a handy infographic outlining the extent of the problem.

Paul Dean of PCGamesN writes about “e-thrombosis,” pulmonary embolisms that can result from long periods of remaining sedentary. He advises people to get up and stretch every so often during long gaming sessions or movie marathons.